SpeedTouch ADSL Modem

This article will hopefully enable you to connect to the internet using your SpeedTouch modem. If you did not already know, the process is not exactly easy, and this guide is here to help you.

Obviously, this has been built using my own experience (with a SpeedTouch 330) and knowledge from elsewhere. If you feel anything should be contributed, feel free to add or edit any information you see fit.

If you are like me, you will probably want to connect when you first finish installing Arch Linux. This means you will require another internet-connected computer, or a Windows installation to proceed with downloading the necessary files.

Contents

The Files...

The kernel driver that is used by the SpeedTouch modem will not work without some firmware. To find out which firmware you need, run the following command:

awk '/4061/ { print $5 }' /proc/bus/usb/devices

Which should give you the revision number of your modem. If your modem is revision 0 or 2 you will need the KQD6_3.012 file. If your modem is revision 4, then you will require the ZZZL_3.012 file. Both of these files can be located in this tarball here.

You will, later, need the firmware-extractor too, which can be found here.

Finally you should check this page to find out the VPI/VCI numbers for your country or ISP.

Now you have everything, save a copy of this guide too (in text helps), and copy everything to a USB flash drive, floppy disk (if it fits), or a USB external hard drive, so you can use them while offline.

NOTE: Unzip isn't supported in a basic Arch Linux installation, you should unzip any .zip files using another computer or operating system first.

Installing everything...

Boot into your Arch Linux installation. You should now copy everything to your home directory. Mount the drive, cp, etc, you'll know what to do.

I assume a speedtouch folder has been created in your home directory containing these files, and that you are currently in that folder.

You should also change to root user for the time of installing and configuring your modem:

su
[password]

Now in that folder, you should have firmware-extractor, and your choice of firmware depending on your modem (KQD6_3.012 or ZZZL_3.012). You will need to split the firmware with the following command:

For revision 0 or 2:

chmod +x firmware-extractor && firmware-extractor KQD6_3.012

For revision 4:

chmod +x firmware-extractor && firmware-extractor ZZZL_3.012

If all went well, you should now have two new files in your directory: speedtch-1.bin and speedtch-2.bin.

Now (as root remember), copy the firmware to the right place:

cp speedtch* /lib/firmware

Now your firmware is installed! Continue to 'Initial Configuration' for more information.

Initial Configuration

We need to create a secrets file, containing the username and password you usually dial with.
This could either be pap-secrets or chap-secrets. Not knowing, we will create both, as it does no harm.

Create a file (I used nano) with the following text, making sure you amend it with your information:

"username@isp" "*" "password"

(This line needs to be in exactly the same layout as above, just change what is in the first and last set of quotation marks.)

Save it as secrets in your speedtouch folder. Now you will need to place it in the correct places: